Standards

1:25 pm

Fri July 26, 2013

Earlier this week we published an email sent to Florida Republicans urging their support for Common Core State Standards fully adopted by Florida and 44 other states. The letter was signed by five former Republican Party of Florida chairmen, including American Conservative Union chairman Al Cardenas.

Common Core

11:45 am

Wed July 24, 2013

Five former Republican Party of Florida leaders have sent out an email asking state GOP members to support new education standards adopted by Florida and 44 other states.

The letter is signed by state Sen. John Thrasher and four other former state party chairmen. When Florida has raised its standards in the past, Thrasher wrote in the email, it has resulted in better scores on international tests and gains from black and Hispanic students.”

Almost all the states and Washington, D.C., are grappling with a big challenge as the new school year nears: getting teachers up to speed on the Common Core, a sweeping set of new education standards for English language arts and math.

The Common Core will soon apply to most of America's students from kindergarten through high school. The policymakers behind the Core know that it could fail if they don't help teachers make the change. So this summer, the state of Maryland has been hosting what it calls "academies" to do just that.

"Common Core" is one of the biggest phrases in education today. To many educators and policymakers, it's a big, exciting idea that will ensure that America's students have the tools to succeed after graduation.

But a growing number of conservatives see things differently.

For years, states used their own, state-specific standards to lay out what K-12 students should be learning, for everything from punctuation to algebra. But those standards varied wildly, so the Common Core replaces them with one set of national standards for math and English language arts.